At present, there are several methods and devices for recharging of credit into the chip cards of prepaid services, most often used in the field of the mobile telephone services.
The most frequently used method of credit recharging into chip cards, the so called SIM-cards of telephone operators, is the recharging by means of the recharging telephone coupons of a certain value, which coupons can be purchased by a customer at a coupons vendor. The recharging coupon then contains a code under a wipe-off field, by which code it is then possible to replenish—“to recharge”—the telephone charge credit, which amount recharged into the telephone SIM-card corresponds with the coupon value. However, this method exhibits a number of disadvantages. On the one hand, the whole recharging process is rather complicated and requires attention of the person processing the credit recharging. That can be very problematic particularly for persons of age or for persons having no experience with such operations. On the other hand, to obtain the necessary recharging coupon can also be a problem, especially in the evening or during legal holidays. Last but not least, the whole process is rather costly because it is necessary to produce the recharging coupons and then organize their distribution in a vendors network before the customer can purchase them. A not unsubstantial risk is also that the recharging coupons can be stolen during their distribution or at the vendors.
Such a system of recharging is disclosed for example in the specification no. CZ 288 688, according to which specification the customer desiring to recharge the telephone charge credit of his SIM-card purchases a telephone subscription card containing a hidden code, which code is then sent by the customer's telephone into the service center, which service center then checks in a database whether the code is valid, whereupon, the service center sends a short text message containing the money value of the recharging coupon into an auxiliary memory, from which memory the SIM-card is then recharged. The code which has been used for recharging the card is then deleted in the database. A similar system is disclosed also in the document no. WO 00/33264.
Another system, which partly removes the above mentioned insufficiencies, is disclosed in the document no. WO 01/75816. This documents discloses a method for recharging of SIM-cards by means of an automated teller machine, a ticket selling terminal or a similar POS-terminal, in which terminal the SIM-card credit is recharged from a payment card of a customer interested in recharging or by means of money directly put into the terminal or otherwise put into the terminal. This method removes necessity of the recharging coupons existence but brings about a significant disadvantage because the customer requiring to replenish the credit has to execute this step in a public place and so a customer is endangered in the same way as when withdrawing money from an automated teller machine, when he can be either robbed or his payment card can be misused. A further disadvantage is that in the moment when the customer deals with the respective terminal for executing the credit recharging, he can be stressed due to the shortage of time caused by other customers queuing at this terminal, etc. A further disadvantage is that when for some reason the transaction has not been not executed, the customer who tried a credit recharging is not sure that the recharging sum was not drawn from his payment card after all.
Document WO 01/09853 discloses a method of credit recharging into the chip cards, which method is carried out via a terminal connected to a service center for chip card recharging, whereby, data is obtained either by reading a bar code or a magnetic code in combination with manual input entry, whereby, said data comprises at least an identification number of the chip card, the battery of which is to be recharged and the amount required for charging a credit into the chip card, whereupon, data is checked with regard to its correctness and the terminal is connected to a data center, where meaningfulness of the request is assessed and in case the result is positive an amount corresponding to the amount confirmed is credited to the account allocated to the card by means of an identification number. With regard to the consumption of time and security this solution exhibits the same disadvantages as those mentioned above.
It is an object of the invention to provide such a method of recharging chip cards, which method is convenient with regard to time, allows a certain possibility of choice to an interested person and makes him sure about spending of the recharged amount.